VIDEO: How Mindfulness Meditation Allows You to Embrace Yourself

In her interview with PsychAlive Senior Editor Lisa Firestone, Dr. Donna Rockwell talks about how mindfulness meditation allows you to embrace yourself more authentically and tenderly.

You know, when you sit there – I meditated, I don’t know, for 15 years before I could really have this have this sort of breakthrough, which is all of that thinking has nothing to do with me. It’s not who I am . It’s just this thing my mind is doing. So, it sort of makes you have compassion for yourself. You know, like, wow, what a busy monkey that mind is. And so you kind of embrace yourself more fully, more authentically, more tenderly.

Meditation helps cultivate gentleness and tenderness, first of all, to ourselves. You know, the expression from the airlines, apply your own oxygen mask before you assist others. That’s what meditation does. It helps you understand yourself, love yourself, see what’s actually going on. And then you can extend that out to others.

But really, if we think that we’re caring of others – and this was my thing, too – I thought I was the most caring person, I tried to be the greatest wife, mother, employee, friend. But what I came to see was that you really can’t give to others what you can’t feel for yourself first. It was a big wakeup call. Especially for us therapists.